I put a lot of effort into this wad, hope you all like it. I have improved a lot from my past mods. Levels are not a port of the originals. It has emblems and unlockables.
I accept all kind of criticism and suggestions.

- Some levels extended (most of them for Sonic)
- Big the Cat playable (I recomend to use analog control ON)
- Two extra levels. One accesible only in Knuckles story, and the other needs to be unlocked
- New sprites for some objects
- New sound effects and voices
- Removed some button/enemy kill parts
- Removed lot of falling plataforms
- Amy has a double jump
- Final boss for Sonic, Tails and Amy
- Restart button for Casinopolis level (also less rings needed to win the level)
- Fixed elevators
- Added 4 cameos for Big, and 2 for Tikal
- There is a total of 29 emblems in the level pack

IMPORTANT
Download all the music files again, because I edited/added more.

To let you know, no one has ever successfully created a level pack based from a video game.. ever. They always end up the same. Terribly. This is coming from an actual mapper of this type and I feel like I influenced you to do so. I'm going to be honest with you and tell you the truth.

First, let me applaud you for creating this with your own style. It's original, and generic. That's a good first step to creating a mod based from a video game, but.. that's probably all the greatness you achieved out of creating this. Aside from that, this was not fun or interesting to play at all.

Um. What I don't understand is why did you include Amy and why did take away her abilities included from her wad? That was pointless, and seperates Amy from being a fun useful character to just moving sprites you can only jump with. Not only that, but she can't even complete the first level. I feel like you included her just because the actual game did, but if that was the case, you'd include Big and E-123456 Robot character. Either scrap her completely from this project, or scrap her completely from this project. Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles are just fine, if she doesn't prove any use like she does now.

From what I noticed from just playing this, all of your stages consisted of the same thing. Either button hunting, or enemy busting and that got pretty old real quick and just makes it completely boring. All the stages were linear. Not technically, but what I mean is there's only one direction to go and that will decrease the value of replay. All the textures you implemented are horrid to look at. On a GOOD note though, you do have some skill in your sector base scenery. I'll give you credit for that. You definetly have some good knowledge on mapping and that's just awesome, but it's not working with this mod. Tiny things throughout your maps, like the upside down gravitational gimmick in Sky Deck was neat, tricks like the "long raising platform" where you had to immediately reach the other side was a little fun and challenging too in Lost World, also the button that sinks the spring under water to get high air out of it was clever too that was in Ice Cap. Why didn't I get more of this? Each of these ideals make a level interesting and fun. Not repeatedly, but have more ideas like this.

If I was to suggest something for this, have something interesting that makes the level distinct from the other or just steal the ideas from the levels in the game. Like in Emerald Coast have a killer whale chasing after you while you're on a long bridge for a visual effect or cinematic scene, but if you want it to have a great effect, I'd suggest you do it in 2D and you'd have to draw well, and SOC. (This is possible because I'm Thompson ;P) Rather than what most you have in every level is just straight platforming and running with random enemies unrelated to the theme lying around.

In conclusion, you're a decent level-designer based on your own style, and I see more potential in you. But, this is a bit less than average compared to a great level pack. I'm not trying to down this, but you're wasting your time. (Actually that is kind of downing)

If you want to continue doing this project, go ahead. OR you could do like me, scrap this, and make beautiful levels of your own style and choice, rather than forcing yourself to do something based from something else you may or may not want to do. Seeing as there has been no success in video-game based mods for SRB2, the chances of this being successful to the majority of the community is slim to none.

EDIT: Also, Casinopolis. The ring hunt idea has a problem. If a player were to collect all the rings in the stage and gets hit by an enemy, they can only recover 20 rings, therefore making the level un-finishable.

Um. What I don't understand is why did you include Amy and why did take away her abilities included from her wad? That was pointless, and seperates Amy from being a fun useful character to just moving sprites you can only jump with. Not only that, but she can't even complete the first level. I feel like you included her just because the actual game did, but if that was the case, you'd include Big and E-123456 Robot character. Either scrap her completely from this project, or scrap her completely from this project. Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles are just fine, if she doesn't prove any use like she does now.

Well, if the user was going to make an update on Amy, What do you guys think you want Amy to be? I think she could have her hammer vault move from Adventure and Advance 1 and it can be socced like Crawlahoncho's rocket jump.

About Amy, I just included her because she is in the original game AND because I want her to have a type of gameplay different from Sonic, Tails and Knuckles. And she CAN complete the first level (her first level). And yes, I m also adding Big with the swim ability (not sure about E-102 yet).

About the levles, yes, I used buttons and enemy busting a lot. I want to add the Tornado in Windy Valley, the whale in Emerald Coast or the rock from Lost World, but I have no idea how to make SOCs...

Thanks for the good criticism, I worked so hard on this mod, and I will continue working on it.

Emerald Coast: This was beautiful and nice to play. It took a lot of work to complete that as Amy. That the water killed player if he dives too deep was very surprisig. The new stone texture looked great and made a new style for SRB2. The only problem was that enyone would try to to dive in the water and die.

Windy Valley: First time was fun. When I tried this as Amy, I realized that there shold not even be way for her. Seems like you have many good ideas. That place with robohoods to kill was great idea. I still didnīt like the next upwards wind tunnel. Later there was a place I didnīt know where to go before I started random spinning to the pillars. Can you make that pillar look like a broken one or something?

Casinopoilis: I think that was a good idea but I didnīt like execution very much. The map looks awesome but thereīs annoying to collect rings.

Ice Cap: This is one of my personal favorites. I liked the style. I liked the ice tubes, that view when you reach a button and the ice maze! There was plenty of fun shotcuts for time-attack and now my Sonic record is 0:53! (Iīll make a video later) Please, do not fix those shortcuts! They are just fun and hard to use in normal gameplay.

Twinkle Park: There was promising theme and the "roof adventure" idea was nice. I didnīt like the place where you had to destroy plenty of enemies and the deton that hit the player. I still fuond a shortcut to skip that obstacle. Please, Donīt fix that. It is hard to use on single player or servers.

Speed Highway: I like the start Those things that made player spin made me think player have to run fast around the map. Actually it was possible and fun in most of the places. I almost got lost when I met the little room with crawlas and crawla commanders. When I noticed that I shouldnīt go just forward after that room I found the way out. The theme was great and this time I enjoyed the enemy destroying obstacle too.

Red Mountain: Not one of my favorites. This had clear path. That was good. And I think the Sonic emblem location was fun. But I didnīt like the lava rise obstacles and the style and theme were a bit weird for me. (just my opinion)

Sky Deck: This is great (mostly). Those pillars on scenery are beautiful. And that would look nice even without them. The big problem is that thereīs falling platforms fall without any kind of a warning. Also, There was a platform that goes up when player is on it. If player falls because of the robots he has to die or restart the level. This was still fun to speedrun. ;)

Lost World: I didnīt really like this. I hate pushing those cargoyles to buttons. Style was still good.

Final Egg: I donīt know do or donīt I like this map. There was fun to jump on platforms and conveyor belts but I still donīt like destroying robots. This could be a bit harder (This is the last map).

Test level: That was actually fun! Glad you published that! I have to use that idea too.

Thanks for the review Ors! First of all, Amy is only meant to be playable in HER levels only (You need to unlock them).

Iīll fix the part after the wind tunnel in Windy Valley. I also fixed the elevator in Sky Deck so you can use it again if you fall.
Oh, and I alredy added another section to Final Egg, now the level is longer and harder (It also has a final boss).

Ok. I will try to unlock Amy story. And I forgot to tell that there's a missplaced death pit in Final Egg. Player will die if it goes to the end of the first metal thing in the room with conveyor belts and lasers. Anyway, I can't wait to see the next version.

This was better that I thought. Now I had time to just fly around and find even more places that were hidden for Sonic.
The emblem location in Speed Highway was fun! First I didn't even know that is possible to go there.

Knux adventure:

Spoiler: Don't read if you haven't unlocked this!

This was a bit buggy... If you find even one emerald in a map after Speed Highway you complete the map if you havenīt dead.
In Casinopolis I tried to find the 300 rings for the emblem but I could find just 295. I was looking for the 5 rings for 15 minutes until I resigned and took an emerald.

Amy adventure:

Spoiler: Don't read if you haven't unlocked this!

I liked the Twinkle Park maze! I ran around it 2 minutes until I found a passable wall. I thought that will make this even more fun as it did.
Hot Shelter was mostly good too. I liked the environment and the big hall with robo hoods, yellow springs and some unknown pushable objects. But I didn't really like the button hunt part. It was opposite of fun.

Hey man, I was playing this pack the other day in a server and I think it's actually really great!
It has some minor resemblance to the original game, Just enough for you to stop and go, " Oh- Hey! I recognize this!" but it also kind of goes off in it's own direction which leaves you kind of wondering and excited to see what new was added.
To be honest, This got me super excited. I love when people add their own twists to classic levels and Sonic Adventure, being my favorite Sonic game(how cliche), made me even more excited.

I did notice over the server when we were in the Ice Cap zone we got a tad bit of lag and I actually [I]haven't[I] played this pack single player yet so I didn't have anything to compare it to, but let's face it; it could have been lag from bad connection, People trying to join- Anything was possible, So I'm not gonna get all nit picky about it. ( I also was never a big fan of the icy levels since I don't like the snow so I doubt I'll come across that level ever again.)

The only really downside I think to this would have to be Amy.
Although she was kept true to Sonic Adventure representation of Amy Rose and reminded me of how much I hated Amy in Sonic Adventure, Again, I'm not gonna get nit picky about it because it's an easy fix.
One, If you don't like Amy- simply don't play as her.
and Two, If you do like Amy, like me, add in one of your own Amy wads and you'll never notice a difference. I do think that if the wad is gonna come with a character like Amy, she should be able to complete the levels, But this is your wad. I'm not gonna tell you what to do with it.

All in all, I think it's a great level pack. Definitely worth the download.

Finally was able to download this, but first I want to say its good to see people with similar tastes :p

Spoiler:

Now, my opinion on this, great job. I personally found the map pack (excluding ice cap) very entertaining.

the reason why I think so, is it has unique maps which were cool to see in srb2 along with great entertainment, meaning they looked good, and were fun.

ice cap however, was cruel to play. There are many things I disliked about this level, but the most important I feel the need to discuss, are the crumbling fofs. Some of these fofs look like any other floor, and unless the player replays an area at least 3 times, nothing could distinguish a normal floor or a crumbling floor. Another problem with these crumbling fofs is that there were some parts where the crumbling fof is a long path which the player needs to run across. Scratch that, jump and speed thok for your life. The difficulty spike this level caused kinda ruined the flow of the game. I wouldn't mind the difficulty of this level had there been a build up to the difficulty, however it was a straight change from simple gameplay, to difficulty due to the player not knowing what was a hazard or pathway.

Finally was able to download this, but first I want to say its good to see people with similar tastes :p

Spoiler:

Now, my opinion on this, great job. I personally found the map pack (excluding ice cap) very entertaining.

the reason why I think so, is it has unique maps which were cool to see in srb2 along with great entertainment, meaning they looked good, and were fun.

ice cap however, was cruel to play. There are many things I disliked about this level, but the most important I feel the need to discuss, are the crumbling fofs. Some of these fofs look like any other floor, and unless the player replays an area at least 3 times, nothing could distinguish a normal floor or a crumbling floor. Another problem with these crumbling fofs is that there were some parts where the crumbling fof is a long path which the player needs to run across. Scratch that, jump and speed thok for your life. The difficulty spike this level caused kinda ruined the flow of the game. I wouldn't mind the difficulty of this level had there been a build up to the difficulty, however it was a straight change from simple gameplay, to difficulty due to the player not knowing what was a hazard or pathway.

but other than ice cap, good job :p.

Your Sky Troops looks really nice! :)

About Ice Cap, yes, maybe I should decrease the difficult a little bit. I added some caution signs, but maybe I should remove some crumbling FOFs

About Ice Cap, yes, maybe I should decrease the difficult a little bit. I added some caution signs, but maybe I should remove some crumbling FOFs

I don't think you should remove too much, simply make the player somehow know the difference between a crumbling fof and a normal fof. Its kinda like hitting a ring monitor, later to find out it was an eggman capsule.

Okay, so me and the guys over at #srb2fun have been looking over this project a few days ago, and we weren't exactly keen on it. However, due to the general elitism among us, some of us not wanting to touch the forum with a 10 foot pole anymore, and general laziness, nobody among us bothered to... y'know... Tell ya' about it. However, I decided that's bullcrap, so I'm here to tell you why your wad is not fun.

I played the mod both in Single Player (though I ended up cheating around Ice Cap), and then in Co-op with said 'fun usuals to get their imput on the level while playing it, and then once more in Single Player, this time without cheating, and trying to find all the emblems. I know the mod wasn't made for co-op, so I wont criticize too much in regards to co-op bugs, but experience taught me that misery likes company. We only got to Speed Highway before the host had to leave.

ZONE 0: BEFORE WE DISCUSS THE LEVELS...

Okay, right off the bat, the hell is with the poor quality of this music, especially for how LARGE it all is? Monster Iestyn tells me you previously loaded all the music into a giant bloat to the filesize before he told you to make it OGG and split it, but man, the quality on these is terrible! I also don't even know if these are looping, or the same music repeated to disguise the lack of looping, making the filesize even BIGGER.

I take it you didn't even compress this. Considering how great Adventure's music was, and of course, you have to hear it the whole game, I already wasn't liking what I was hearing, and I was gonna have to deal with it the whole way through.

Also, the character select. You know you can hide the visability of these characters, right? If we can only pick Sonic for the main game, Sonic should be the only one there. Also, you changed Amy's stats (for the worse), so telling us she Double Jumps is an outright lie. She can't do anything, and you KNOW it.

ZONE 1: EMERALD COAST

Quote:

Originally Posted by From the Logs

<@Sryder13> Button hunts!
<D00D64> I'd like to point out this big fat warning sign
<D00D64> I actually thought this button was for a secret
<D00D64> only to realise it was to get to the main path
<D00D64> that's not a good sign
<@Sryder13> Indeed

ButtonSwitchTriggerThing Hunts are the bread and butter of this mod, and that's one thing you don't want as your main gimmick. They're harmless here, and if done okay, you usually don't retread a lot of ground or anything, but it gets far more annoying as the mod goes on.

Also, one thing that immedietly bugged me; why don't these buttons make any kind of confirmation noise? When I first saw the switch, I thought it was some kind of sector spring or something, but it sinks down. Adventure 2 switches made noise, so why not these?

...In fact, why ARE there so many switches? Adventure didn't have this many. Come to think of it, how many levels in Adventure even HAD switches? All that come to mind are Final Egg, Hot Shelter, Red Mountain, and the hub for Station Square. Even then, whatever they activated was usually right next to it anyway.

Quote:

Originally Posted by From the Logs

<D00D64> Warning sign #2: that ring box
<D00D64> its not only difficult to get to
<D00D64> but for something tricky
<D00D64> its only 10 rings
<D00D64> this mod is DEVOID of shields and 1ups
<@Sryder13> I think I saw 1 shield
<D00D64> there's a few, maybe like 3 or 4 in the entire game
<D00D64> so finding secrets, when they ARE around, is unrewarding
<@Sryder13> Yeah, nothing very much in good items
<D00D64> also makes the game way harder
<D00D64> like, see these waterfalls?
<D00D64> I went into EACH of these
<D00D64> nothing
<D00D64> they're right there, easily accessible
<D00D64> its a sneaky place to hide something
<D00D64> but... nope.

And here's another thing that persists for the entire mod; the almost complete lack of powerups. I don't remember seeing a single 1up in the whole game, and shields are absurdly rare. Even ring boxes arn't as common as other SRB2 levels. Not only does this usually mean the emblem is the only real secret in the level, it makes the game way harder, up to a difficulty spike that we'll get to later.

Okay, at this point, I entered the rather bland cave area (If you arn't sure how to make a good cavern, look at Red Volcano's sector scenery, it's a pretty good example), and after breaking through a door that didn't look breakable, and hitting a switch to go underwater, I had to wonder,why is there no colormap down here? Just tint it dark blue, the wiki has the common color codes on its colormap page. It's pretty jarring to go through an underwater area that looks just like the surface but with more bubbles.

...And immedietly as you escape, you get THIS guy. This one crawla can see you from inside the cave, and if he spots you, and you take too long by, say, trying to catch a breath and getting hit by a mine, you'll get hit, and fall down, but chances are, instead of falling back into the cave, you fall in the water and die! Because the cave actually exits out of the water, it's SUPER close to the death pit water surrounding it. This could easily be worked around by making you come out of some pillar or something instead, but this is a pretty cheap shot as it is.

Now, that's all my real complaints with this map. So as for the good parts, I will say I did enjoy your sector scenery. Sector Scenery isn't as common as it should be, especially with Adventure's more realistic textures. Aside from the whole cave section and leaving said cave, there wasn't anything annoying about it, it was a nice, breezy beginning level. I wouldn't call it bad.

ZONE 2: WINDY VALLEY

Alright, so this level is shorter but better than the last. While the textures make long repeating walls look a bit iffy, the wider open air areas and the closed in areas have some pretty good sector scenery going on yet again. It's a nice level, not much to say about it. However...

First off, is the first appearance of the badnik bopping segments, which nobody liked. And I mean NOBODY wants to do these. They just get in the way and don't add anything to what you normally do. Again, like the switches in Emerald Coast, its pretty harmless here, but it sure gets worse.

Also, the level was really devoid of any gimmicks to make it stand out. The way springs are used just end up like a different flavour of spring, and the breakable pillars threw me off for awhile, but I'd hardly call that a gimmick. As a result, as much as I like this one, it's still not anything outstanding.

ZONE 3: CASINOPOLIS

Quote:

Originally Posted by From the Log

<D00D64> I have no idea how this works in mp
<D00D64> like, if its the total for all players
<@Sryder13> would it take the total of all players?
<D00D64> okay, I got 5 rings
<D00D64> ;etsall stand on this at once
<D00D64> and see if it works
<@Sryder13> 27
<@Sryder13> 17*
=*Nothing happens*=
<Majro> Well, crap
<@Sryder13> Nope :v
<~Rowellina> yeah fuck that

=*We use setrings to get through*=
=*...but then Marjo goes through a doorway and locks us out*=

<@Sryder13> pfft
<Majro> Hooray, I trapped you
<D00D64> ...are we locked out
<D00D64> welp
<@Sryder13> let's see...
<Majro> I didn't know that will happen
<D00D64> well, might as well skip it

...Again, your mod wasn't really made for co-op, but if you decide to make it co-op friendly at some point, you might wanna factor this stuff in.

At this point in the game, the quality dips REAL low. The scenery hear is definetly the weakest so far, with the textures and lighting not really conveying the darker, glitzier atmosphere of the original. But that's not what makes it real bad, oh no...

For whatever baffling reason, you threw this at us.

This leads to the most boring part of the mod, where you have to slowly and carefully get 250 rings. And getting hit by a single badnik fails the mission, basically. Now, let's go through why this works in Adventure and not here.

First off, Adventure had a bank. You could deposit your rings in it at any time. This immedietly takes the pressure off. Second, there's hardly any enemies in the main room, so there's no real risk to losing rings. Third, if you use the pinball minigames, you can never be stuck in an unwinnable situation. And finally, it had an ACTUAL stage you could take instead, which gives you more than enough rings on its own and has shields and invincibility to get you by safely.

In the mod, you get a dull slog through a big room with barely anything in it, and slowly and carefully pick up the required rings. It's a snorefest, but one slipup will cost you big time. There just... isn't anything to it. Ugh. This is the second lowest point of the Sonic path.

Oh, and special mention to this. See that flower? I turned 'soniccd' on so that you know where the enemies were defeated. If I hit that switch, the cutscene that ensues would have caused the red crawla to hit me, with no control over my actions and no visability to whats going on. Not good.

ZONE 4: ICE CAP

...And this is THE lowest. Oh boy, here we go...

Quote:

Originally Posted by From the Log

Map is now "MAP04: ICE CAP"
<D00D64> ICE CRAP MORE LIKE
<Monster Iestyn> ice cave music out in the open
<Majro> Why the hell would you use the cave music for outdoors
<Monster Iestyn> doesn't fit at all
<@Sryder13> It's not that bad
<D00D64> well, its a slower paced level
<D00D64> maybe if the sky and lighting were darker
<~Rowellina> even Be Cool Be Wild Be Groovy would fit
<~Rowellina> not this

So yeah, a common complaint was how unfitting the music choice was. Snowy Mountain would work much better than Limestone Cave.

Quote:

Originally Posted by From the Log

<@Sryder13> oh so you CAN make this
<D00D64> yeah, again
<D00D64> case of the 'you can crumble this?' block
<D00D64> again, no clue you can do so
<Monster Iestyn> lol

What's even the point of putting all these bustable blocks in the levels? They're used all of once in a level and never come up again. It's pretty pointless.

Quote:

Originally Posted by From the Logs

<Majro> The entire collumns crumble?
<D00D64> YEAH, ENTIRE LANDMASSES WILL FALL
<@Sryder13> best level
<D00D64> THE ONE THING THAT SHOULD BE SAFE
<D00D64> nope
<@Sryder13> exactly what I thought when I died there :v

<Majro> Is this huge path crumbling?
<Monster Iestyn> yeah
<D00D64> YES.
<D00D64> thats the path
<Majro> Christ
<D00D64> and the end... is right there
<D00D64> COULDA MOVED THAT CHECKPOINT BACK Y'KNOW

=*Iceman404 joined later and didn't see what floors were crumbly...*=
<Iceman404> THE FUCK DID THAT CRUMBLE FOR
<Iceman404> AAAAA
<@Sryder13> everything crumbles

So here's the biggest flaw of the level right here. Crumble floors you don't see untill it's too late. And one is curved around a hallway so you can't see where to go. This mod loves its crumble floors, and we sure as hell dont.

Quote:

Originally Posted by From the Logs

<D00D64> bop the badniks, jump around the back, hit a swithc, get in the water, spring to the crumble floor
<D00D64> and then haveNO IDEA when to jump
<D00D64> and die
<Monster Iestyn> button hunts
<D00D64> repeat untill you have one life
<Iceman404> like fuck I'll wait 1 hour to download 2 music files
<D00D64> and then repeat, while ALSO getting 100 rings
<D00D64> because the game never wants to give lives
<D00D64> or shields

I express my discontent for the long strech between a badnik bop room and the curved crumble floor ice hallway. I don't even want to discuss this in detail. I'm sick of it. Sick of it.

So yeah, I can't stand this level. Aside from the castle at the end, which looks really nice but not much else, I can't think of anything good to say about it. I don't want to talk about this one any further.

ZONE 5: TWINKLE PARK

Quote:

Originally Posted by From the Logs

<Majro> Does anything that made this level interesting appear here?

To answer his question: No.

Quote:

Originally Posted by From the Logs

<Iceman404> HOLY SHIT
<@Sryder13> lol
<Iceman404> why does everything CRUMBLE!?
<@Sryder13> that part was bs
<D00D64> IKNOW
<Monster Iestyn> he is crumbling insane
<D00D64> NOTHING IS FUCKING SAFE IN THIS MOD
<D00D64> the world crumbles before your eyes
<Iceman404> that's how the cookie crumbles I guess

Seriously, what is your obsession with crumble floors!? They even look just like platforms from earlier that DONT crumble! What gives!?

Quote:

Originally Posted by From the Logs

<@Sryder13> OH MY GOD A SHIELD
<Iceman404> yeah
<Iceman404> and be warned
<D00D64> A RARE BREED
<Iceman404> it's the only shield in the entire mod IIRC
<D00D64> there's like
<D00D64> one more
<Monster Iestyn> really?

Again, point out how devoid of shields the game is, the one time there is one, in a bizzarely easy to find place. This level also has the only 1up I've seen all mod.

And there's also this asshole. Out of nowhere, this deton comes out and it's nigh impossible to avoid. In any place with detons, there should be some form of cover to protect yourself, but there's nothing of the sort here. You only get out of getting hit if you're VERY lucky.

Quote:

Originally Posted by From the Logs

<Monster Iestyn> oh good it's the end
<D00D64> alright, next level?
<Iceman404> this map pack is like
<Iceman404> the same level design style
<Iceman404> OVER AND OVER
<Iceman404> with texture variation
<D00D64> yes, thats EXACTLY it
<D00D64> hit the nail on the head, iceman

Finally, this is the point of the mod where everything gets really same-y. Every level has switches, badnik bop rooms, crumble floors, and that's it. That's all there is, and thats extremely apparent in Twinkle Park. Where's ANYTHING from the actual Twinkle Park, for starters?

ZONE 6: SPEED HIGHWAY

Quote:

Originally Posted by From the Logs

<D00D64> YO REMEMBER SPEED HIGHWAY'S HOTEL INVADING SEQUENCE, RIGHT
<D00D64> WHERE YOU BROKE THROUGH A WINDOWPLANE IN THE MIDDLE OF THE HALLWAY

Since the levels are almost the same at this point, I'm basically forced to talk about all the bits I didn't like. So yeah, let's discuss that.

First off, why is the starting left path far, FAR faster than the upper right one? The right path is also way more difficult, with this one jump you can just BARELY make up. There's no real reason to take the upper path.

And then there's the sequence where you gotta find a button by breaking through glass, something you couldn't do before, and then breaking a box that doesn't even LOOK breakable, and then hitting a switch to progress.

So aside from Speed Boosters, the level has no real sense of speed and is exactly like the others. Speaking of that, the crumble floors in this stage are actually two platforms, so if you only go on the outside or the inside, only that part will crumble. I'll take it that's not intentional.

ZONE 7: RED MOUNTAIN

One thing that crops up once more in a zone; Little reason to go off the main path, if even for just a bit. Here, there is no reason to go to the left at all. From where you start on this path, you can go straight ahead until you see a way up to the right. So why would I go to the left? You coulda' put a monitor or some loose rings there, and there's even a 10 ring monitor just out in the open up above on the main path, so why not put it here?

But after that, we have this annoying-ass pully section (why don't the sides of these pully FOFs move?) which is annoying because of a flamethrower you CANT SEE until it's far too late. This goes for a lot of the flamethrowers in the level, but this is one of the more assholeish examples. It also doesn't help that it turns off, so it can turn on when you least expect it or possibly don't even KNOW about it. If you can get around every flamethrower by jumping, why are they ever turning off anyway? They'll just ambush the player!

I also notice this, and I know exactly why you did this, because I did it for te same reason; the pully will make you go backwards if you hold onto it as you touch the wall. That's why all the pullys in Arid Canyon go in one line going around and then back in a loop. Now, I can understand if you just want a one directional pully, but again, I cant help but think that the player might not notice until its too late. It was almost too late for me!

Within the volcano itself (the one time the music changes midlevel in a Sonic stage), it was way too dark to me. I had to turn up the brightness to see anything. Aside from that and the volcano being a button hunt, I didn't have too much beef until this one particular moment.

UGH. Okay, I land on this platform, and because the platform has buoyancy it sinks JUST enough for me to take damage from the lava, because it sunk under it. Why am I taking damage because of this? Clearly you must have seen this happen, right? I actually died because of this! Either make it solid ground, or don't make buoyant platforms over something hazardous!

And the reason I died at all is because this lava isn't lava. It's water. Really hot water from where there is no escape. I died twice because I fell in and could not get out. You need to specifically flag the water FOFs to be lava, so the tops are solid. Right now, its water. That hurts you.

ZONE 8: SKY DECK

So to make up for the lack of crumble floors, they're back.

And they're everywhere.

EVERYWHERE.

EVERYWHEEEEEEEEEEEERRRRRRREEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAUUUUUGH

So you take one of the worst gimmicks you can spam, and just making a level where NONE of these paths, of which there are many, can be trusted. I even herd Monster Iestyn telling me one of these crumble platforms falls up. I don't even know how you manage that, but this results in a level that is INFURIATING to play.

To get anywhere, I had to do this. Just get on the beams to the side and walk from there. It's bad enough that this huge chunk of the level is just open air hallways, but to make me either have to go on this super narrow part or risk falling to my death at random, that's just dickhead level design.

This is more of a nitpick, but why does the gravflip thing look like a button? I thought it was just a different switch design, but no, it's a button. Weird.

Anyways, I continue along all this and make it to a part where huge chunks of the level are ALL GIANT CRUMBLE BLOCKS. That's the least likely place anyone would think something would crumble! No matter what, a new player is gonna lose a life, because they had NO WAY to see this coming! There's enemies and rings implying all of this is stable, but no, it all falls apart.

I believe this is to imitate that one part where the planes are flying off and the runways are collapsing, but just because it worked okay THERE doesn't mean it'll work just the same HERE. Nothing can be trusted in this stage.

After this, I continued onto a thankfully far more enclosed room where there was a bit less linearity... I think. I don't really know, I just broke through a wall, hit a button, jumped on the elevator that activated because of it, and crashed the game. At this point, I was way too annoyed to continue. I thought Ice Cap was the worst, but you sure outdid yourself!

ZONE X: CONCLUSIONS

So, that's the review for now. Will I bother to finish Sky Deck? I don't know. Will I finish the rest of the game? I don't know! Will I do those other character paths! Well, I don't know about doing them in depth, but I played some of those levels via some sneaky methods, so let me talk about them a bit.

Tails Adventure is the exact same as the Sonic ones, only some platforms are gone, there's some silly blockades, a few awkward teleports, and not much else. He's therefore the most boring to talk about, but he does get to skip annoying bits of Sonic's stages on his flight alone.

Knuckles Adventure's use of Sonic's stages for its levels really brings it down here more than the real Adventure, Speed Highway and Casinopolis being the most obvious. The emerald shard bug I won't hold against you, but since these levels are just the old ones with emerald shards, it just feels lazy and boring.

Amy Adventure, from what little of it I tried, is a nightmare. She's super slow and has no abilities, in addition to doing almost the exact same levels as Sonic, badnik killing blockades included. She is simply unfun to play as, no redeeming qualities whatsoever. Even her unique level, Hot Shelter, is a real bore. I never did like those gargoyle pushing bits in Deep Sea, and I don't like them here either.

So yeah, it's pretty clear I don't like this. It starts out okay and then just gets worse and worse and way worse as it goes along. I'm so annoyed at it I can't even finish it. It took me days to write this review because I got so sick of it, I had to stop and come back later! And I still didn't finish the mod!

But I can't say its all bad. It's clear a lot of effort went into this, from you converting the assets yourself and not trying to jack level design from the original games in an engine that doesn't work, but effort alone only goes so far. The same flavour of level design remains constant throughout the map, and the abundance of crumble floors and lack of powerups just make it a slog of cheap deaths with little room for mistakes. I doubt I'll give this another go.

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Quote:

<Nekoishi> HOW DO YOU JUST NOT NOTICE GIGANTIC BREASTS
<RedEnchilada> I remained ignorant to a set of titanic breasts for 17 years!